1978 Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair

Cast your mind back to 1978! America was in the grip of both Saturday Night Fever and Star Wars Mania, shivering with chills - of excitement! Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David Accords, Space Invaders began its assault on our supply of quarters, and in August of that year, at the Dunfey's Royal Coach Hotel at I-75 and Howell Mill Road, the Atlanta Comics And Fantasy Fair held its fifth festival of fantasy and fun! 

poster for the 1978 ACFF signed by the guests

With comics guests like Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, Howard Chaykin, and Marshall Rogers, along with a full slate of films, slideshows, a costume contest, an art show, and an auction, the 1978 Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair promised a weekend of fantasy fun for all.

If you were any kind of a SF or F fan in Atlanta your only other local convention option in 1978 was DeepSouthCon, that year's version of the traveling literary SF show which was at the time making regular appearances in Atlanta every few years. 1978's DSC was in June at the Riviera Hyatt House, which used to be on Peachtree where 85 and 75 meet, right by Brookwood Station. Jack Williamson was Guest of Honor and Bob Heinlein was rumored to be attending, but he didn’t show up. Attendance was 731, which is a pretty good size for a DSC.

But we're here to talk about the Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair, and that's just what we're gonna do. Thanks to a friend of a friend we have images of the 1978 ACFF program book, so let's take a look! 

Marshall Rogers provides a program book cover illustration of a rebooted Blackhawk, complete with everyone's favorite handgun, the Mauser C-96, and a nice try at remembering the name of the convention he was doing this piece for. 

A welcoming message from the co-chair gives us a little history of the convention and reassures con-goers that here in the ACFF's hopefully permanent Dunfey's home, they've licked the space problem. Their main events room seats 700, after all.  Just look at all four of those rules, which remind us that the fandom convention of 1978 was way more interested in finding old comic books and getting Steranko sketches than it was in causing trouble.

Interested in what's happening at the ACFF? Here's the schedule. It fits on one page. 

Having everything take place in one room cuts down on expensive video equipment, right? In fact this convention didn't have ANY video equipment, all these movies and TV shows were screened on 16mm film. But hey, it's 1978. Where else are you going to see Marshall Rogers, Mike Vosburg, and Howard Chaykin talk about... I'm gonna say Batman. 

Okay, I get that it's 1978 and this clackety projector clacking away in the ballroom of the Dunfey's might be your only chance to see "Rocketship X-M". But "well done" that movie definitely is not. 

Hey guys we are going to be showing at LEAST fifteen minutes of "Star Wars"!  Can you believe it? Please note that the Atlanta Comics And Fantasy Fair is, in compliance with the Trekkie Flub Law Of 1972, also screening the Star Trek Blooper Reels. 

COSTUMERS: have your FORMS FILLED OUT and your ASS IN COSTUME at 6pm in front of the MOVIE ROOM for your FINAL JUDGEMENT

Later in 1978 interested parties would see the first issue of VISIONS, the semi-pro fan magazine that would later double as the Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair's program book. You could purchase your own copy of VISIONS at the Book Nook, back when they were on Clairmont Rd right where it crossed Buford Highway. There's a KFC there now! Book Nook is still around with several locations, the closest to their old home is 3073 N Druid Hills in Decatur. 

Kenneth Smith provides a pointillist brain creature adding a touch of science fiction otherworldliness to this heretofore manly action-man filled program book. 

And we return to grim pulp action with a Steranko back cover that pretty much aims squarely at the target of 1978's fantasy fair demographic - men in their 20s and 30s who want blood and thunder and lots of it!  Judging from reports it seems the 1978 Atlanta Comics & Fantasy Fair was a success. Soon the show would change its name to merely "Atlanta Fantasy Fair," and later down the road they'd move from the Dunfey's, but in 1978 all these changes were still in the future. 

-Dave Merrill

Thanks to David Nelson for his assistance